Survivors mark 1 year since Asiana crash

Three people were killed when Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crashed as it landed at the San Francisco International Airport on July 6, 2013.

The other 304 people on the plane survived the crash. While 181 of them were taken to hospitals with injuries ranging from spinal fractures to bruises, another 123 managed to escape unharmed. Of the people taken to hospitals, 49 were seriously injured.

Among the 291 passengers were 141 Chinese, 77 South Koreans, 61 Americans and one Japanese, Asiana Airlines said.

There were 16 crew members on the flight, in addition to the 291 passengers, according to Asiana Airlines.

Smoke rises from the wreckage.

A slew of first responder vehicles at the scene at San Francisco International Airport.

An aerial view of the wreckage at San Francisco International Airport.

The plane involved in the crash is seen here landing at the San Francisco International Airport in May. Asiana purchased the plane, a Boeing 777-200, in March 2006.

Perhaps one of the reasons so many people survived the crash is because the Boeing 777 is built so that everybody can get off the plane within 90 seconds, even if half the doors are inoperable.

Exactly what caused the crash could take up to two years to determine, said Choi Jeong-ho, head of South Korea's Aviation Policy Bureau.

In the days after the crash, the South Korean Transport Ministry said "the tail of the Asiana flight hit the runway and the aircraft veered to the left out of the runway."

Passengers from the plane are seen boarding buses at San Francisco International Airport.

Debris on a runway at San Francisco International Airport.

Before the crash, the 10-hour flight from Seoul, South Korea, had been uneventful.

A fireball erupted after the Boeing 777 airliner hit the runway hard around 11:30 a.m., rocked back and forth, spun around, shearing off the plane's tail.

Four pilots working in alternating shifts operated the plane, Asiana Airlines said. The pilot flying the plane at the time of the crash was a veteran who had been flying for Asiana since 1996.

In June 2014, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded that the Asiana 214 crash resulted from the "crew's mismanagement of the airplane's descent" -- in other words, pilot error -- into San Francisco International Airport.

Two of the people killed in the crash were found dead outside the plane, according to San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White.

The airline identified the victims who died the dayof the crash as students Wang Linjia and Ye Mengyuan, both 16. A California coroner ruled that Ye was alive when she was flung from the plane but was killed by "multiple blunt injuries" moments later when run over by a rescue vehicle.

A third girl died at the hospital six days later of injuries suffered in the crash.

Among the survivors are 26 Chinese middle school students on a summer camp trip, the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco said.

The crisis had trickle-down effects as well. At one point, flights destined for San Francisco International Airport were diverted to airports in Oakland, Sacramento, San Jose and Los Angeles, said Francis Zamora of San Francisco's emergency management department.

By 3:30 p.m. on the day of the crash, two of the San Francisco airport's four runways were open -- though the other two were still closed over eight hours later.

Four pilots working in alternating shifts operated the plane, Asiana Airlines said. The pilot flying the plane at the time of the crash was a veteran who had been flying for Asiana since 1996.

San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White said that when crews arrived, "some of the passengers (were) coming out of the water. But the plane was certainly not in the water."

"There was a fire on the plane, so the assumption might be that they went near the water's edge, which is very shallow to maybe douse themselves with water," Hayes-White said.

Asiana has had other two fatal crashes and a several close calls. In July 2011, a cargo plane slammed into the East China Sea, killing the only two people on board. In 1993, an Asiana Airlines Boeing 737 went down in poor weather near South Korea's Mokpo Airport, killing 68 of the 116 people on board.

Asiana Airline crash survivor Benjamin Levy speaks to reporters.

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